Nicola Davies - Children's Author

I have been working with children in schools and at festivals, for longer than I have been a writer. I began giving talks about natural history to primary school children whilst I was still a zoology student, which is 376 years ago now. When I was a TV and radio presenter I worked with live audiences of children and began to go into schools to run writing workshops.I also spent a decade as Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Nowadays I’m asked to visit schools and to talk at literary festivals because of my books. I do all sorts of things. Sometimes, with big audiences I do what I call performance zoology. This is something like cross between the Royal Society Lectures and stand up comedy for the under 10s. I also work with the conservation organisation The World Land Trust http://www.worldlandtrust.org and sometimes combine talking about my work, with talking about theirs.

What I do more and more of is running writing workshops for children in primary and secondary schools. I often use natural history as a jumping off point for the children’s writing - poems, prose, stories, short drama pieces.

I’ve worked in schools and colleges all over the UK, in Europe, America, Canada, Africa and the Far East, with children from 4 to 16, undergraduate and post graduate students.

If you’d like me to visit your school then do please contact Authors Aloud who handle all my bookings. They will be able to tell you how much it will cost.

Lennox Author Award 2016

This is the Q&A from the awards ceremony for the Lennox Author Award 2016, which took place on Tuesday 9th February at Cockenzie Primary School, Cockenzie, East Lothian. I'm joined by the other shortlisted authors Piers Torday and Gill Lewis.